Philip Oakey

Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is an English singer-songwriter who is the frontman and co-founder of the synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, he has enjoyed an extensive solo music career and has collaborated with numerous other artists and producers.

Oakey was among the most visually distinctive music artists of the early 1980s. At the height of their success, the Human League released the triple platinum-certified studio album Dare (1981) and Oakey co-wrote and sang the multimillion-selling single "Don't You Want Me", a #1 single in both the US and UK, where it remains the 28th-highest-selling single of all time. Oakey has been lead vocalist of the Human League for more than 40 years. With the band, he has sold more than 20 million records worldwide. He continues recording and performing internationally. He was educated at King Edward VII School in Sheffield. He left school at 18 without finishing his exams and worked in a number of casual jobs, including one in a university bookshop and as a hospital orderly at Thornbury Annex Hospital in Sheffield in 1977. In 1978, Oakey married his girlfriend Anthea Helliwell, whom he had met at school, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1980.

Entry into music

Oakey's entry into music in 1977 was unintentional. He purchased a saxophone but abandoned efforts to learn how to play it, and he had no aspiration to be in a pop group.

In Sheffield in 1977, Oakey's former schoolmate Martyn Ware, along with Ian Craig Marsh and Adi Newton, had formed a band called the Future. They were part of an emerging genre of music that used analogue synthesisers instead of traditional instruments, a style later to be termed synth-pop. Although they had recorded a number of demo tapes, the Future remained unsigned. Newton was fired by the band after they were rejected by record companies. Ware decided that the Future needed a dedicated lead singer to replace Newton. His first choice, Glenn Gregory, was unavailable, so Ware suggested Oakey to Marsh. Although Oakey had little music experience, he was well known in the Sheffield social scene for his eclectic dress sense and classic motorcycle. Ware invited Oakey to join the Future by leaving a note on Oakey's front door. Oakey joined the band in mid-1977.

After the tour, the band had their first UK Top 20 hit, "The Sound of the Crowd," in April 1981. Now with the addition of Jo Callis and Ian Burden, the band became a six-piece and went on to release the single "Love Action (I Believe In Love)," which became a #3 hit in the UK. This was followed by "Open Your Heart," which also reached the top 10. Soon afterward they released a full album, Dare, mostly written by Oakey. Dare would soon become a #1 album in the UK and achieve multi-platinum status. At the end of 1981, the fourth and final single from the album, "Don't You Want Me," provided the band with their first #1 single and would sell more than 1.5 million units in the UK, remaining at #1 for five weeks. It also topped the chart in the U.S. the following year, selling another million copies there. By 1982 the Human League were famous worldwide.

The remainder of the 1980s saw the band's success peak and dip, with the follow-up release of the album Hysteria in 1984 underachieving. In 1986, Oakey accepted an offer to work with American producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, which resulted in the release of the album Crash and the single "Human," which became another international hit and reached #1 in the U.S. However, by 1987, the band had lost most of its members, leaving only Oakey, Sulley and Catherall. In 1989, Oakey persuaded Sheffield City Council to grant a business development loan for the building of Human League Studios in Sheffield, Oakey's dedicated studio for the band and a commercial venture.

After the 1990 album Romantic? underperformed commercially, peaking at #24 in the UK and in 1992, Virgin Records cancelled the band's recording contract. This had a devastating effect on the band, causing Oakey to seek counselling for depression and Sulley to have a breakdown. Oakey recalled in 1995: "We watched Romantic disappear without a trace. Gone, gone into the past with all you've hoped for. […] About that time, I think, I had a low-grade nervous breakdown." Oakey's and Sulley's emotional problems nearly caused the band to dissolve. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Catherall, by 1993 Oakey and Sulley had recovered and the band signed to East West Records, followed by the release of the gold-selling album Octopus in 1995 and the hit singles "Tell Me When" and "One Man in My Heart."

His most commercially successful collaboration was with producer Giorgio Moroder. In 1984 for the film Electric Dreams, he and Moroder provided the film theme song, "Together in Electric Dreams." When later released as a single, it became an international hit, more successful than some of Oakey's Human League singles of the same period.

Fashion style

Throughout his career and in his personal life, Oakey has been a flamboyant dresser and fashion trendsetter. His outrageous dress sense and original hairstyle would make him an iconic figure of the early 1980s music scene.

Oakey also appeared in public in full makeup, dressed in his eclectic style. He states that "Sheffield was so accepting that no one ever blinked an eyelid."

Discography

Studio albums

Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder (1985)

With The Human League

Reproduction (1979)
Travelogue (1980)
Dare (1981)
Hysteria (1984)
Crash (1986)
Romantic? (1990)
Octopus (1995)
Secrets (2001)
Credo (2011)

Singles

"Together in Electric Dreams" with Giorgio Moroder (1984)
"Good-Bye Bad Times" with Giorgio Moroder (1985)
"Be My Lover Now" with Giorgio Moroder (1985)
"What Comes After Goodbye" with Respect (1990)
"1st Man in Space" with All Seeing I (1999)
"Rock and Roll Is Dead" with Kings Have Long Arms (2003)
"LA Today" with Alex Gold (2003) It reached number 68 on the UK Singles Chart in April 2003.

Guest appearances

"This Used to Be the Future" (from Pet Shop Boys album Yes) (2009)
"Symmetry" (from the Little Boots album, Hands) (2009)

Film and television

1990: Bunch of Five: The Weekenders (TV) (D. Vic Reeves) – played himself
1999: Hunting Venus (Buffalo Films, D. Martin Clunes) – played himself
2010: Top Gear 15x01 – guest appearance (Jeremy Clarkson's 'Three-Wheeler Report')

Awards

1982: BRIT Awards – (as the Human League) 'Best British Breakthrough Act'
2004: Q Awards – (as the Human League) 'The Q Innovation in Sound Award'
Nominated for Grammy Award in 1982 for Best New Artist (as the Human League)

References

External links

Oakey deliberately does not have an official website, not wanting to do what others do, and apparently believing it is expensive to have one.

"Philip Oakey of The Human League: Here Comes The Mirror Man" – Interview with Philip Oakey of the Human League – Rocker Magazine, 2011